The eunuch in charge of the seal smiled. "If the monarch disagrees, the memorial will be returned, and the prime minister who drafted the proposed response should revise it as circumstances dictate. If this happens more than three times, the monarch will summon the four prime ministers for discussion. If no decision is reached, the Grand Secretariat meeting will be expanded to include all Grand Secretariat Councillors. Should that still fail to yield a conclusion, a full court assembly will be convened. In short, by the final step, both sides will ultimately compromise. This process is called the Harmonious Proclamation Accord."
Fang Yun nodded. Similar arrangements, where ruler and ministers jointly governed the realm, had also appeared in the Ancient Hua Kingdom.
The eunuch in charge of the seal continued, "In addition, all imperial edicts issued by the monarch are handled by the Grand Secretariat. When the monarch wishes to issue an edict, but the Grand Secretariat considers it inappropriate, or believes it does not reflect the monarch's true intent, it has the right to reject it. This is called Edict Rejection."
Fang Yun nodded again. Edict Rejection occasionally occurred in the Ten Kingdoms as well. At its core, it was a struggle between imperial power and the power of the Grand Secretariat. Both sides had to constantly wrestle and compromise before eventually reaching a balance.
Fang Yun asked, "Your Directorate of Palace Attendants is responsible for passing documents between the monarch and the Grand Secretariat. Your authority must be considerable."
The eunuch in charge of the seal panicked. "I would not dare! I would not dare! In the past, some eunuchs in charge of the seal did win their monarchs' trust and gained the Vermilion Approval authority reserved for monarchs alone. Yet this invariably brought disaster. In the end,